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Australia's prime minister has taken a comical swipe at Donald Trump, mimicking his mannerisms and making reference to the Russia scandal, in comments he said were intended as "affectionately light-hearted".

In a leaked audio recording that comes just months after a tetchy phone call between the two leaders, Malcolm Turnbull is heard making fun of the US president's idiosyncratic speaking style.

"The Donald and I, we are winning and winning in the polls," Turnbull said in a closed event for journalists in Canberra on Wednesday.

"We are winning so much. We are winning like we have never won before.

"We are. We are. Not the fake polls. Not the fake polls. They're the ones we are not winning in," he said to laughs from the audience at the Mid-Winter Ball, where politicians and Canberra journalists let their hair down.

"We are winning in the real polls. You know, the online polls. They are so easy to win."

Typically, the event is off-the-record, meaning journalists would not report on what was said, but a recording was leaked to the political editor at commercial broadcaster Channel Nine, who did not attend the soiree and decided to report it.

Turnbull played down the speech late Thursday, saying that he was the butt of the jokes rather than Trump.